We are human, we have opposable thumbs and we like to do things with them. Maybe it's because so many people have academic qualifications but no tangible skills. Previous generations new how to do things, they had at least a basic level of technical know-how that meant they could fix, say, the lawn mower if it broke. Now, if something breaks we bin it and buy a new one. Maybe it’s also to do with jobs that are all about organising and not about making anything. From project management to call centre working, so much work is service-based or involves being in the middle of a complex chain of operations with no tangible output. How many people do you know who find it difficult to actually explain what it is they do?
This is a big trend that includes elements of craftsmanship, amateur, frugal and the whole gardening/cooking thing. All of those ideas touch upon a desire to get hands dirty, to do something real, practical or difficult.
We see Doing Things materialise in activities like DIY art; knitting; learning an instrument; allotments; specialist sports; teaching holidays; blogging; volunteering or home baking. Through
VideoJug people show the world what they can do; the
Interesting conferences are a celebration of the knowledge purely for it’s own sake.
Look at the way so many of our own campaigns include an idea you can do, like make a Magic good mood film, experiment with IKEA textiles in an online roomset; take part in Bowtime in your local boozer.
Also see the DIY book covers and coke cans above.
then there is We Are What We Do (who will be speaking at the APG soon)
:
"We Are What We Do is a new kind of movement inspiring people to change the world one small action at a time.
Our philosophy is simple:
small actions x
lots of people =
big change We have the 130 small things that you can do to change really big things.
Pick an action,
track it here, and see how it
all adds up."
Let's face it, despite the parable, we all judge books by their covers. Good design can make a book much more attractive or put you off something with amazing content - think of the recent trend for re-reading the classics, mostly because Penguin did a retro redesign and a range of celebrity designed covers. Unfortunately though, book covers more often than not betray the content within. Some really good books get lost because of their appalling covers, and more disturbingly, bad books get on the bestseller's list because of clever covers. Anyway, in combat, a Canadian blog put out a call for people to redesign their favourite book covers with some interesting results. I especially like the Waiting for Godot cover. The Guardian have just opened a competition on the same them. Maybe we should do some entries. Mail to :book.covers@guardian.co.uk.
The Apprentice, Property Ladder, Dragons Den.... capitalism was fun while it lasted. But as banks are being nationalised and city high-fliers are packing their executive stress balls into cardboard boxes and switching the lights off as they leave, people are beginning to wonder whether socialism had it right after all. Karl Marx's Das Capital is flying off the shelves in bookshops, and its readers are finding his predictions that capitalism would collapse under its own internal contradictions ever so prescient.
There seems to have been a big swing away from the big to the micro. Mass is naff and small is cool. Sub-sub-music genre’s proliferate: post-punk/garage revival/dance-punk/baroque-pop/new-prog/post-rock/new-folk anyone? How about tailoring in Top Shop; long tail economics; Fendi bags and Pantone pens; micro-festivals like end of the road and shambala; digital micro-communities like Gurgle.
